STAFF the
Adviser Dana Baker
Editor-in-Chief Samaleh Omar Managing Editor Shravani Reddy Design Editor Ava Proehl Copy Editor Helina Wondwossen Business Editor Arnav Kumar Photo Editor Cayley Kilduff
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The caged bird sings with a fearful trill of things unknown but longed for still and his tune is heard on the distant hill for the caged bird sings of freedom. //excerpt from I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Maya Angelou
News Editor Kaise Dualeh Features Editor Aayusha Khanal Culture Editor Emily Peacher Opinions Editor Claire Wodack Sports Editor Lydia Carpenter Staff Writers Eliza Agi Anika Akkapeddi Lauren Balser Lindsay Brisson Kayla Cooper James Czarnaski Camille Desjardins Bailey Elliott Morgan Maiden Madison Roney Kawther Said Uncaged is the newsmagazine of Freedom High School. The attitudes, opinions, views, and ideas expressed in Uncaged do not necessarily reflect those of this staff, the faculty adviser, Freedom High School, or the Loudoun County Public School system. Uncaged follows the county and state guidelines established for student high school publications, and disclaims any liability with respect thereto the use or reliance on any such information contained in this publication. The Uncaged staff welcomes contributions and encourages the expression of students, faculty, staff, and members of the Freedom High School community.
Cover photo by Claire Wodak photo illustration by Ava Proehl
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table of contents
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[news] [features] [sports] [culture] [opinion] [back cover]
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CONTENTS
from the editors Hey there free birds, The time has finally come! After four lengthy quarters, we’ve made it through another year of high school and created our last issue for you guys to enjoy. For those of you who are going on fun vacations, we hope you have a blast and stay safe during your adventures. But for those of you spending the majority of the summer at home or nearby, consider reading through our past issues or checking out our online website uncagedfhs.org (shameless plug)! It’s a great way to pass the time if you’re looking for something to do; we know how uneventful summer break can be sometimes. We are immensely proud of all of our seniors who have solidified their plans after high school, and we wish the rest of our Freedom community luck in the rest of their journey through high school. To the class of 2019, we look forward to seeing all of your future success and happiness! And to all the underclassmen out there, take the summer break to figure out your interests and develop meaningful friendships that will carry you through the more turbulent times of high school. After all, graduation is closer than it seems, and senior year is just around the corner. Now is the time to make your high school years memorable! Finally, remember to relax during the summer. You have (hopefully) worked hard all year, and deserve a break. Recharge to start next year strong, and we will do the same with new staff members and a renewed drive to provide you with quality magazines throughout the 2019-20 school year.. We’ll see you next year!
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Making Our Planet a Green House
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ith the rapid development of Northern Virginia, and the growth of communities such as South Riding, Stone Ridge and Willowsford, there has been an increase in ideas on how to protect the environment that these areas are encroaching in. Some Freedom students, including seniors Dhruva Venkat and Aidan O’Brien have taken on the challenge of positively influencing the environment. As a part of their Senior Capstone Project, they decided to build a greenhouse with the help of the Technical Education department. “Dhruva has really big ideas, and we needed a Capstone to do, so we took the idea of the greenhouse and added it together,” O’Brien said. The process of building the greenhouse started in September when the team pitched the project ideas to principal Douglas Fulton. Once the project was approved, the team then had to get approval from the county. “The approval from the county is a battle, because they are super slow,” Venkat said. “We are still waiting to hear back from them right now. Once approved we can begin building.” If the county does not accept their proposal, the Capstone team will have to repitch the idea, introducing more complications to the project. “At first we thought that it would take six months to build a
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greenhouse, but as more bureaucracy came in, it is definitely being pushed into summer not by lack of ability but lack of timing,” Aidan O’Brien said. The FHS Tech Ed department has provided the group with the materials and tools needed to complete this project. Although four members of the group have taken Tech Ed classes while at FHS, none of them have attempted a project of such a large scale. “Mr. Jones has played a big role in the process of building the Greenhouse,” Venkat said. “[He] runs all the engineering side of this and he has worked on projects just like this one before.” Jones has many years of experience in the Tech Ed department. Graduating from VCU, before career switch towards Tech Ed, Jones has had a variety of experiences which influence his work. He works on his own projects at home, where he has a shop fixing up household items and even works on cars. “I love fixing things, using my Tech Ed skills in daily life, but I still sometimes have to pull up YouTube,” Jones said. “It’s so hard for students to fix things nowadays because everything is built to fail, recycled or to be rebuilt.” Tech Ed teaches lifelong learning skills, which can be as simple as gluing two pieces of wood together. Even while their project may have faced some troubles, they are still proud that they will
have access to new skills for years to come. “Problem solving skills are taught in Tech Ed, so it’s not just a math problem but it has the physical aspect so there is more satisfaction when completed,” Jones said. The Tech Ed department works on projects by the quarter creating useful items for the school to use on a daily basis. During Wellness Week the department made doorstops out of recycled plastic for the school. “The door stops shows how we are able to reuse, reduce, and recycle,” Jones said. “I love using stuff that people threw away in my projects and be able to recycle them.” When Jones introduces a new project, he is sure to install the message of, “Failure is not a option to his students; it is what you do with the data from failure is how you will be judged.” He feels by having a message in the class creates more unique products. The students will begin progress on the greenhouse if it is approved by the county. Their goal is to begin construction on the southside of the school next to the preschool playground and the teacher parking lot. “If they don’t accept then we will have to pitch to them again, and work on it over the summer,” O’Brien said. “But, if not, hopefully someone will pick up the idea.” [Story by Morgan Maiden]
Parking Without the Pass
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he struggle to find parking is real for many licensed students at Freedom High School, whether that be due to the price of a parking spot or the traffic lining the streets. Choosing to pay the price of a spot or arrive to school early to park on the street is a decision all students with cars have to make. Out of the 17 high schools in Loudoun County, all of them provide a parking lot for students during school hours or school sponsored activities. Parking passes are $100 per semester, with 12.5 percent of those funds going to FHS. LCPS receives the rest of the money. “It is so nice to be able to park near the school and know that you have a spot, even if you are late,” said junior Julia Riley. Unlike many high schools in Loudoun County, FHS students have access to free parking on Riding Center Drive. However, in an attempt to shorten their walk into the school, students often take an empty parking space instead of parking on the street. This causes an issue with staff members who are supervising the parking lots, needing to regulate these students. “There was a concern with a few of our staff members who were out there and there were students who were not paying and who were extremely rude about that,” said Douglas Fulton, Free-
dom High School principal. At John Champe High School, students have access to Sacred Mountain Street, which is a small road that fills up fast, according to Champe sophomore Will Knudson. Once the road is full, students will park in the parking lot without a parking pass. “I often park [in the parking lot] and I do not have a parking pass, but they don’t care,” Knudson said. “I do not think they are really worth it.” When neither the empty parking spots or street are available, students resort to parking in neighborhoods, or in another student’s parking spot. In some cases, students’ cars have been towed, and some had to meet with administrators after increased violations of the parking pass contract. “We require every student, before they get a parking pass, to have their parent attend a parking pass meeting to go over everything that could happen,” Fulton said. “We keep track if you go to the meeting, whether you pay, and then
our front office staff keeps track of who the parking pass has been assigned to.” Many schools have mirrored the way Freedom keeps track of parking passes. In some cases while checking, administrators will find people parked in the parking lot that should not be near a school, or with cars just left near the building, according to Fulton. “With the parking passes, we try and keep safety in our school,” Fulton said. “So when we are checking for parking passes, we are also doing school security too.”
[Story and photo by Madison Roney]
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ll students face the big question of what they want to do for a living. Teaching is a career that is instrumental in the lives of youth, but, according to Market Watch, the number of people majoring in education has gone down by more than 20 percent. Many students have noticed this and entered the different programs available at Freedom High School such as Early Childhood Education, Teacher Cadet, and Educators Rising. These programs allow students to work with younger children and help out in these classrooms. “You get to know the kids and how each of them have different ways of learning,” said Neha Nauman, a sophomore in Educators Rising. “Just going around helping people learn the same thing in different styles has helped me because I feel like in the future when I have my classroom and my kids, I’m
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going to be aware of the different ways kids learn.” The students in these programs are coming from all different backgrounds. Nauman didn’t always want to be a teacher, however, Zion Douglas, a senior in Educators Rising and Teacher Cadet, grew up knowing she wanted to be a teacher, since her mother was one. “A lot of my family members were like ‘Are you sure you want to be a teacher?’ because they were teachers and they didn’t think that the pay was right,” Douglas said. “But I’m not doing it for the pay, I’m doing it because I love encouraging other people and teaching.” The pay is often the most common problem driving people away from pursuing education. Why enter a field that is widely underpaid when there is a whole world of jobs that pay a lot more? Some argue that the wage is not enough, while others believe that the
pros ultimately outweigh the cons. “My parents have actually encouraged me because teaching is a good thing,” Nauman said. We all need teachers because that’s how we understand things. It’s important that there are more teachers because the teachers the ones who teach the kids and the people that go into different fields.” Elementary school specifically is a critical point for every person because it is when they learn fundamental concepts that are expanded on throughout their lives. This is a strong motivator for many of the students in Educators Rising, as they want to be a good influence for the kids. “You are in charge of shaping all these different careers,” Douglas said. “And I think that’s super cool because you are essentially shaping the world.” [Story by Anika Akkapeddi] [Photo from Flickr]
*Favorability Poll
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Dueling Classes
n recent years, Dual Enrollment (DE) classes in high schools have become increasingly popular due to their college rigor and credit. Can Dual Enrollment classes compete with the rigor of Advanced Placement (AP) classes? Although dual enrollment classes are undoubtedly becoming more recognized nationwide, people still have mixed views as to whether or not these classes are as valid as AP classes. At Freedom High School, there has been a rise in the amount of Dual Enrollment classes offered to students such as DE English, U.S. History, Geospatial Science, Independent Research Science, and Biology. These college level courses are available to 11th and 12th grade students, and when completed, students get college credit for those courses. One thing that makes dual enrollment unique in comparison to AP classes is that there is no final test required to receive college credit. However, due to not requiring a final exam, dual enrollment is often
viewed as less valid or rigourous than AP classes. Senior Doria Smith believes that the difficulty of AP classes cannot be compared to DE classes, but also understands the importance of them. She has taken AP Psychology, AP Language and Composition, and is currently enrolled in AP Calculus as well as DE English. “I took dual English so that I wouldn’t have to take AP Literature, because I heard that it was really hard,” Smith said. “I didn’t want that much of a challenge, but I think a lot of people were on the same page as me. They were more interested in dual enrollment because of the college credit, and that it seems easier than AP Literature.” Smith, like many other students, has taken a variety of classes with various difficulty levels. Although DE English appealed to Smith for her schedule this year, she still believes that AP classes are more difficult in rigor and deserve the prestige they uphold.
Like Smith, Senior Joshua Lee also believes that AP classes deserve the prestigious reputation they currently have, but takes a more nuanced stance on the subject matter. Although Lee has not taken any Dual Enrollment classes, he has taken a variety of AP classes. As a result of his experience believes certain AP’s are more deserving of that prestige. “Not all APs are made equally, because there are some APs that are harder than others like AP Literature, AP U.S. History and AP Calc,” Lee said. At the end of the day, it is important to note that DE classes are in fact college credit courses, which ultimately makes them more rigorous than academic classes. However, in most cases, AP classes are more challenging. As for which class is more valid, that is completely up to the discretion of the individual student. [Story and photos by Kayla Cooper]
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UNDERAGE
Editor’s note: Students quoted in this article have requested anonymity and therefore have not been identified. hether it is happening at parties or in a friend’s basement, there is a percentage of students at Freedom High School who are familiar with drinking. In fact, most teenagers have some sort of relationship with alcohol. A survey conducted by CBS news revealed that 78 percent of U.S. teenagers admitted to consuming alcohol. Drinking is mostly done as a way to escape boredom and explore something new and exciting with friends. “[Teenagers drink because] there’s nothing to do in South Riding that’s cheap,” said FHS student #1. However, it is illegal for people under the age of 21 to purchase, possess and consume alcohol. If a student is caught drinking by the police, they can be charged with underage possession of alcohol. Underage drinking in Virginia is considered a Class 1 misdemeanor, which can result in maximum penalties of jail time for up to 12 months and at most a $2,500 fine. “[If we get called to a party,] we breathalyze everyone and if you’re blowing zeroes, we call your parents,” said Deputy Jason Gadell, school resource officer. “If you blow anything but zeroes to indicate that you’ve been drinking alcohol, we can write a citation for each possession of alcohol. The reason it’s
possession is because alcohol is in you, you actually possess it. You can also possess it if it’s in your wingspan. If you can reach out and grab it, then that would be in possession of alcohol.” Common reasons why the police are called to a party include noise complaints and suspicion of underage drinking. “What most deputies do when they get to a party like that, there will be a lot of kids, we have a lot of units come and we breathalyze all the kids and we call their parents to come and get them,” Gadell said. “For people who are being disrespectful, rude, or uncooperative and we can’t get ahold of their parents, those people are going to get cited.” Although many parties do take place around events such as Homecoming and Prom, as well as holidays like Halloween and St. Patrick’s Day, the party culture at FHS is fairly quiet. “There are more hangouts,” said FHS student #2. “The party culture at Freedom is very closed, it’s more just like friend groups together instead of an actual party.” Parties still do happen, and they sometimes get out of hand. “I was at a party and saw blue and red lights,” said FHS student #3. “I heard people yell ‘12’ so I went to the backdoor
and booked it. I ran as fast Usain Bolt.” While uncommon, students in the past have come to school events such as football games and school dances under the influence of alcohol. Drinking or being intoxicated on campus is against Loudoun County School Board policy, and will result in different repercussions than if drinking were to take place outside of school. “First violation is seven days out of school and three days assigned to a substance abuse education class,” said Kathryn Koscisnski, FHS assistant principal. “Second violation is 10 days out of school and three days at a substance abuse education class which happens at Douglass. After that, you could have long-term suspension or possible expulsion from the school.” When a student is suspected of intoxication, school administration takes them to the nurse to ensure that they are not in danger of things such as alcohol poisoning. Next, he/she is taken to the school resource officer to do a breathalyzer test, which could result in a student being charged with underage drinking. The school administration will then call the student’s parents to inform them of the situation. If a student were to play a sport, he/she would also suffer suspension from those activities.
Underage 8
13.8
customers consumed % of all alcohol sold in Virginia
DRUNK DRIVING
RAGING “[For sports,] first offense is 30 days, second offense is 365 [days], so a year, and then third offense is no longer on a team,” Koscinski said. “It’s also cumulative, so if you had an incident freshman year, and had an incident junior year, it counts as your first and second. It doesn’t erase every year.” While drinking and being drunk on campus is a serious offense, there are also many risk factors involved with a student coming to school under the influence. At FHS, the administration looks at the situation in a holistic manor, asking the question of why a student is choosing to be intoxicated on school grounds. “If someone’s drinking on campus, then they’re obviously in a stage of addiction that has surpassed experimenting,” said Monica Belton, school social worker. “So then we’re dealing with the issue of addiction, what causes addiction and what’s going on with that person, and that’s what myself and the counselors are for.” Having a parent who’s an alcoholic makes a child four times more likely to become addicted to alcohol, and if both parents are, it makes a child eight times more likely. While alcoholism does not affect everyone who drinks, the dangers of alcohol are still present. Excessive drinking affects the brain,
SOURCES FROM: https://www.bjs.gov https://www.cdc.gov http://www.hanover-cares.orgw
increases blood pressure, damages the liver and can cause pancreatitis. It is also linked to cancers in the mouth, throat and liver. For individuals under 21, consuming alcohol can especially damage their future. Being charged with alcohol possession can affect college admissions, lessening the chance of getting into higher ranking schools. “I think teenagers just want to explore different substances and want to be cool,” said anonymous FHS student #2. “Not to say people who don’t drink are uncool. But as long as you’re having a good time, it’s seen as cool.” While drinking can be seen as a way to have fun with friends, the consequences of underage drinking are severe. It is important for people to consider the ramifications of their choices before making them instead of regretting them later.
In 2017, drunk driving was responsible for almost 30 percent of deaths on Virginia roadways. In an attempt to lower this number, the dangers of driving while under the influence is taught in 10th grade drivers-ed class. “Here at Freedom, students are aware of the risks, and they have seen what the outcomes could be,” said Nick Schwarz, health and P.E. teacher. “So hopefully they make the right decision to choose if they are participating in those activities, they are setting up ways to find rides or Ubering, or relying on friends, or staying where they’re at. The more education students have on the repercussions on the outcomes of drinking while driving keeps them from doing it.” Virginia has a zero tolerance policy for underage drinking and driving. If a teenager is driving with a blood alcohol content of .02 percent or higher, their license could be revoked. -Claire Wodack
[Story by Claire Wodack] [Infographic by Aayusha Khanal]
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WHEN THE MIND E
very year, students discuss a plethora of issues relevant to them, from cyberbullying to drug abuse. One topic that rarely comes up, however, is that of body image and eating disorders. “Over one-half of teenage girls and nearly one-third of teenage boys use unhealthy weight control behaviors such as skipping meals, fasting, smoking cigarettes, vomiting and taking laxatives,” states the National Eating Disorder Association (NEDA) on their website. There are many kinds of eating disorders, but three of the most common are anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorder. NEDA defines eating disorders as “serious but treatable mental and physical illnesses that can affect people of every age, sex, gender, race, ethnicity and socioeconomic group.” “Unfortunately, online and on social media, there’s a lot of people who claim to be experts in nutrition and fitness and in medicine and they’re not,” said Alison Totta, a registered dietitian at Children’s National Health System. “And it’s not just the exposure to these images that is damaging,” NEDA states. “It’s our interaction with them—the pressure to have the perfect profile pics, the comparisons we make and the dangers
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of the constant scrutiny of our own and others’ bodies.” Social media is a common part of many young people’s lives, but athletics—another cause of eating disorders— are not as common for every individual. A study of Division 1 NCAA athletes found that over a third of female athletes reported signs placing them at risk for anorexia nervosa, according to NEDA. NEDA notes that sports that have an emphasis on weight are naturally more likely to lead to eating disorders. “Sports that limit competition based on weight class and sports that focus on body image—something like gymnastics or dance—can exacerbate an unhealthy relationship with food,” Totta said. “I think the nature of those sports, like wrestling, can be very disordered.” Junior wrestler Jeffrey Strother has never developed an eating disorder and does not believe any of his teammates have either. Despite this, he does recognize the unhealthy eating habits that he and his teammates establish during wrestling season. “[One of my teammates] basically starves himself every single year just because coach doesn’t have a person to put in his weight [class],” Strother said. “He wants to bump up a weight class,
but his coach won’t allow him because there’s already people up in that weight class and it’ll screw everyone else up.” Even if just for a few days, not eating enough—especially for athletes—is extremely dangerous. “Without the nutrition that food supplies, both your neural function and brain chemistry can be negatively impacted,” Livestrong, an organization dedicated to providing simple and healthy ways to live, states on its website. “This in turn affects just about every facet of your bodily function that the brain is involved in, including concentration, memory, sleep patterns, mood and your motor skills.” Strother noticed this in his teammate during the height of the season. “[My teammate] can’t think properly in school, he gets mad a lot, he’s hungry,” Strother said. “That’s all you’re thinking about every single day; it really does affect you.” Despite this, there are ways to ensure that one keeps good body image and does not develop unhealthy eating habits and/or an eating disorder. “The key to developing positive body image is to recognize and respect our
BULLIES THE BODY natural shape and learn to overpower those negative thoughts and feelings with positive, affirming and accepting ones,” NEDA states. Totta and Strother both agree that having a positive body image helps to keep an individual’s relationship with food, exercise and self-confidence healthy. Body image is not the only factor for those three things, but it can certainly play in a role in keeping an individual healthy. “It’s important to talk about [eating disorders] and to normalize them; it’s also important to focus on health versus emphasizing any kind of eating or exercise pattern that is going to be generalized and not individualized to one person,” Totta said. “There’s a lot of messages that come in health class or even at the doctor’s office encouraging healthy eating and encouraging exercise, but those goals don’t apply to everybody.” “I feel like what you can do is talk about it to your coach,” Strother said regarding the struggles athletes face. “Your coach is not going to starve you.” “I think the most important thing is to seek help,” Totta said, “to know that you’re not alone.” [Story by Lauren Balser]
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FIXING FAUX FLAWS
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crolling through Instagram, many teens are faced with the same posts by influencers. Kylie Jenner poses with her “perfect” hips, butt and waist, or Tana Mongeau strutting her body and showing off flawless skin and makeup. The high standards set by influencers, who teenagers often look up to, can pressure teens to change how they present themselves online. Sometimes, teenagers who photoshop themselves on social media can overcorrect their bodies, which leads to their peers noticing that the photoshopped posts don’t align with how they actually look. Photo editing has only become easier and more accessible to teens due to the introduction of several photoshopping apps. One of the most popular of these apps is Facetune. Facetune is incredibly cheap and easy for anyone to use. A large percentage of teens use Photoshop. In a poll taken of Freedom High School students of different genders, 24 percent admitted to photoshoping themselves on social media. While it
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may seem like a rare occurrence, using photo editing software to augment one’s body or features is very common among teens. Teen girls notice their peers altering their appearance all the time. “Some girls will edit their bodies so much it looks really fake,” said sophomore Myani Vongphakdy. “They’ll push in their hips more or even make their butt bigger.” It’s no shock that societal pressures would make young teens feel the need to alter their features to appear a certain way online. Not only do influencers promote unrealistic standards, but they make young followers feel that they have to look like the influencers they follow. “Photoshopping already creates an unrealistic idea of perfection for the people who see it on the media, but when it looks natural, it makes it worse because people think it is the reality,” said sophomore Sarah Rossman. There are many factors that go into why teens use Facetune. Many use it
to blur a pimple or whiten their teeth. Others, however, use Facetune as a way to make their hips wider or their waist smaller, and to change the natural appearance of their body. When influencers are constantly setting these high standards of themselves, it leads to teenagers wanting to do the same. “It’s easy to see who tries to develop themselves according to those unrealistic standards,” said freshman Collin Gray. Students need to understand that they are fine the way they are, and shouldn’t base themselves off of influencers who have significantly more money than the average teen. “I think that only following accounts that you know are real and just being aware of the chance that the pictures you are seeing may not be real,” Rossman said. “I think that the awareness that you might be seeing things that have been edited or photoshopped is more important than completely avoiding the accounts.” [Story by Camille Desjardins]
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Kiss My Ace
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he wave of spirit that comes along with football games is a repeating occurrence every fall. The winter basketball hype has students driving to Richmond during the school day to watch games, and lacrosse has people bearing the heat of spring for hours. Unfortunately, tennis doesn’t receive the same treatment. Some Freedom High School students don’t even know there’s a tennis team, and game turnout nearly always consists of just a few supportive parents. Regardless of this, the girls’ tennis team has done consistently well in their performance for the past several years. This season, they currently have 7 wins and 0 losses. Their success should make them deserving of more support, but the turnout at their games definitely does not reflect their performance. Junior Apoorva Saravanan is the current captain of the girls tennis team. She has years of experience playing the sport, and first decided to try her hand in tennis after watching her family play. “As a young kid I saw my dad play with so much passion for the sport, then I saw my older sister start playing,” Saravanan said. “Because I admired them so much, I thought I would give it a try, and it’s been such a great experience.” She joined Freedom’s tennis team as a freshman, her years of experience helping her work hard and secure the spot of team captain. Just like her father and sister, Saravanan
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soon found that she too had a passion for it. Many of the team’s players have also found that their motivation to play tennis comes from their love for the sport. They’ve learned that tennis is not a sport played for glory; it’s a sport played by those who have a true passion. Following the family tradition, Saravanan has been able to become what she describes as an expert. She often compares tennis to other sports, these differences influencing her to work even harder. “In a team situation, it’s hard to pinpoint the reason for a loss because the whole team works together for 1 game and common goal, but in tennis, you can’t help but blame yourself if you contributed to a loss because it’s only you out there,” Saravanan said. Most of the players have been training and practicing for years, giving up weekends and free time to be the best they can be. Their sacrifices have paid off; the team does consistently well, their number of wins greatly outweighing their number of losses. Their performances are especially impressive considering the solo nature of tennis. Sports like football, soccer, lacrosse and basketball are all team based, and though they work just as hard, during games, players have an entire group of other people to rely on while on court. Tennis, on the other hand, is partner based. The amount of people on the court varies per game, making it impossible to rely on others.
“On the court, it’s either just you, or you and one other person,” Saravanan said. “You have to have confidence in yourself and your abilities and your partner as well.” Tennis games are comprised of nine individual matches, each of them played by a different team member. The matches are worth one point each, so each player is responsible for securing a point for their team. Because of this, Saravanan is always unsure of her abilities before a game. However, she does not let that stop her from doing the best she can. “You can’t help but blame yourself if you contributed to a loss because it’s only you out there,” Saravanan said. There are many reasons as to why Saravanan and her fellow team members fell in love with the sport of tennis. Among these are team bonding and the thrill of the game. During her first conference championship, Saravanan and another player won the final match, breaking the tie and winning the game for the team. The win not only brought her team closer, but strengthened her love for tennis as well. “The whole team rushed to meet us as we were running off the court and everyone was just piled up into a whole sweaty mess,” Saravanan said. “I don’t think I’ve ever smiled that much in my life, we were all just so proud of each other.” [Story and photo by Lydia Carpenter]
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*The names included in this map were all that were recieved and confirmed at the time of printing, therefore not every member of the senior class is represented.*
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Helping Over Hazing
enior Madden Moore has been playing basketball for the entirety of his high school career, and has had the opportunity to grow extremely close with his teammates. “We do various activities during the season to get closer as a team,” Moore said. “This past season we spent a day in D.C. together and went to laser tag before the playoffs.” Moore, just like many other student athletes at Freedom, was lucky enough to be on a supportive team. However, he is not a stranger to the problem of hazing, and understands its severity. “I think some people think that seniority gives them the right to bully younger students and this gets out of hand on some sports teams,” Moore said. On sports teams, it’s common to find athletes participating in non traditional team-bonding activities. It is likely to see students encouraging others to shave or dye their hair in preparation for big games, or participating in unusual team exercises to increase morale. Fun games
like these may start off as innocent, but have the potential to get out of hand. Where is the line between harmless, team-strengthening games and potentially dangerous activities? JV boys lacrosse coach Phil Shore has been playing sports all his life, and has worked with various high school teams. During his time as a coach, he has become familiar with the issue of hazing. “I’ve been lucky in my experience as an athlete that I was not hazed,” Shore said. “I want my players to have that same experience.” Shore has made it his responsibility to make sure all athletes feel safe and motivated, in order to ensure that each of his students has the same positive experience with sports the he had. “It’s important to create an environment where people trust each other, people are comfortable and people feel valued,” Shore said. “It’s important to me that players understand that [hazing] behavior is not at all okay; that expectation needs to be set.” Athletic director Brad Bauder has also played
sports for as long as he can remember, and has dedicated his career to helping student athletes. Administrators such as Bauder have made it their mission to prevent hazing or dangerous initiation rituals on Freedom High School sports teams. “Hazing in our school is not tolerated at all, if we ever find out that something like that is going on we handle it immediately,” Bauder said. “We make sure that coaches do their best to prevent those types of activities from happening or that culture from being created.” Bauder, Shore and other members of Freedom athletics try to educate athletes on what hazing entails, in attempts to express how dangerous it can be. They find that helping students understand the difference between team-bonding games and hazing helps prevent the issue from occurring. “Hazing happens whenever someone is forced to do something they do not want to do,” Bauder said. “We try to make sure our doors are always open in case a student athlete wants to talk to us about a situation like that, and we try to teach the correct culture and trust them to do the right thing.”
[Story by Helina Wondwossen]
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Trying Something New
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s students enter high school they might decide to be involved in a sport. The commitment and time which is necessary for sports makes students decide if the sport is really for them. When students arrive to Freedom High School they are bombarded with opportunities from clubs, to volunteering opportunities and sports. With the overwhelming percentage of students joining sports throughout their freshmen year, peers can be persuaded to try out, whether they are advanced in the sport or not. When asked, a majority of students say they try new sports to try something different or because it seems fun. Sophomore Maya Farley played soccer her freshman year. She has had past experiences with soccer which led her to try out. “I played soccer in elementary school and I remembered liking it so I thought it would be fun.” Farley said. The first part of
being on a team is tryouts. This is a task that can be especially difficult when the sport feels foreign. Although the sport may not feel right, having the support system from teammates can be an extremely persuading factor in the decision making process of joining or leaving a sport. “It was a good time going to all the games and it was a family atmosphere,” said senior Lara Arif. Different sports hold different levels of competition that require distinct types of ability. The varying skills necessary to do well in a sport can also change an athlete's perspective on what sport fits him/ her best. Junior Aislinn Garcia played field hockey freshman year but did not continue due to her involvement and success in a different sport. "[I] tried out for cross country that previous week because I did track and field in the spring. [I] loved track so I was like why not try cross country” Garcia said. The duration of the season or the commitment needed for the sport can influence the feelings of an athlete as to whether they continue the sport or look for a different activity. The time commitment can become extensive when the
sport itself is not enjoyable. The increase in workload as a student gets older may also be a deciding factor. Freshman year allows for extra time which could be spend doing different hobbies but as junior and senior year approach, it is less likely that extra time will be available. “I had to weigh the different pros and cons and see if it really was [worth] putting the time and effort,” Arif said. “Because playing a high school sport is a serious time commitment and at some point you have to realize am I really passionate about this sport to keep playing it”. Experiences from sports can help achieve lessons that can be applied to other situations. “I think trying something is the point of high school,” Arif said. “You are supposed to get out there and try new things. If it isn’t for you there is no problem in that just don’t do it the next year.”
[Story by Eliza Agi]
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Stepping Back to Leap Forward I
n any sport, athletes try to gain an advantage over their competition. In an attempt to do so an athlete will repeat a grade or reclassify to improve their academics and gain strength and skill. In Northern Virginia, it’s very uncommon for athletes to reclassify at public high schools, but at private schools it’s practiced often to help athletes play at the next level. Jack Von Hoene, Dominion High School lacrosse goalie has first hand experience with reclassifying. Von Hoene played between the pipes for Dominion for four years and won a 4A State Championship in 2016. Last year, he was a 4A State Runner-up and closed out a fantastic career at Dominion. Von Hoene decided to reclass after graduating from Dominion in 2018. Some athletes will reclass or complete a fifth year to prepare for college. After graduating from DHS Jack decided to take a postgraduate year at Brewster Academy in New Hampshire to improve his grades. Brewster has helped many athletes to achieve success, a recent athlete who has found success is Donovan Mitchell. Mitchell played basketball at Brewster and then went on to play college basketball at Louisville. Mitchell is now in the NBA putting up phenomenal numbers and was in running for the rookie of the year award. “Brewster really gave me the opportunity to improve my study habits,” Von Hoene said.“I really didn’t come here to become a better athlete, I came to put myself in a better position academically.” Making the choice to go to Brewster was a no brainer for Von Hoene. Ryder Garnsey who was an All-American, an award given to the top players in high school lacrosse, inspired Von Hoene to go to Brewster. Brewster worked out for Garnsey and he committed to play at Notre Dame in 2015. Garnsey took the same route as Von Hoene, attending a fifth year of high
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[Story by James Czarnaski] school after Landover Academy. When an athlete commits to a school the school may request the athlete to reclassify to help strengthen the recruiting class, which is what Notre Dame asked Garnsey to do. “I remember looking for places to pg [postgraduate],” Von Hoene said. Somehow I remembered that Ryder Garnsey played there, so I just said why not look into Brewster.It really wasn't anything more than that it was just sink or keep swimming you know.” “The second I got to Brewster, I sort of had this feeling of this is where I belong, so I didn’t reach out anywhere else,”
Von Hoene said. “I just had faith in this school and it worked out for me.” Von Hoene loved and cherished his four years of high school at Dominion. But, felt he let himself down academically, which forced him to do a postgraduate year. “I really didn’t do that well in school there and that was my nobody’s fault but my own and that’s the only reason I did a pg year I loved all four years at Dominion,” Von Hoene said. After finishing out his fifth year at Brewster Academy, Von Hoene will attend and play lacrosse at Ohio Wesleyan.
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“T
here’s a pool on top of the roof?” the eighth graders excitedly whisper to one another, rejoicing in the very first grain that hits their high school rumor mill. They hope the next four years will be filled with stories of crazy fistfights, infamous cheating scandals, outrageous after-parties and bad relationship breakups. Secretly, they hope one or two of these stories will be about them. Yet, to shame them for these toxic expectations would be beside the point. The culture of gossip has become fundamentally ingrained in the concept of a high school experience. Although it’s the most applicable reference, gossip culture dates much farther back than the movie “Mean Girls.” In ancient Grecian literature, Homer claimed that the rumor was the messenger of Zeus. During Henry VIII’s rule, rumors were used by nobles to achieve diplomatic goals. In the 1940s, rumors were the fuel of McCarthyism, spreading the Red Scare across the United States. For centuries, they prevailed as socio-political tools. In more recent
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decades, they have become synonymous with high school. “They mainly thrive in high school environments because there’s nothing else that’s really going on,” said senior Megan Pelletier. “Hearing rumors essentially creates entertainment for others.” Entertainment is one of the primary influences in the culture of gossip. Shows and movies revolving around high school drama—like Clueless, Pretty Little Liars, Gossip Girl and Riverdale—have attained cult status, flashing record ratings and high viewership. The plot twists intended to keep audiences captivated have transformed into the unrealistic expectations of high school. “Teenagers want to feel good, psychologically speaking,” said senior Ali Collier. “It’s toxic, but rumors spread to keep [others] down and to make [themselves] feel above them.” People, especially adolescents, spread rumors when they experience anxiety, when it helps their self-image or when it helps their social status. In correlation, many Freedom students say that rumors are most often about things that impact these three factors.
“Most rumors at Freedom are either about people having discipline associated with them, so like getting in trouble or speculating why people are gone, or academic-related rumors, as far as people’s grades, GPA, or so and so cheated or so and so did that,” said senior Melissa Abel. “Rumors generally revolve around relationships, drugs, fights and grades. Rumors are almost always negative,” said freshman Rebecca Cherian.“ They give attention to people who don’t necessarily want the attention. An extreme rumor about someone could possibly lead to stress, anxiety and in some cases, someone having suicidal thoughts.” While many students view rumors as inherently bad, others have a different perspective. “Sometimes rumors are harmful, but sometimes they’re not,” said freshman Ethan Mpanju. “They’ll say something good about someone. [Even if ] it might not be true, still, it’s good.” Good or bad, it all just depends on how the rumor has it. [Story by Shravani Reddy]
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FACING FEARS
ears follow people around in their day to day lives, spanning from heights to insects and even the dark. These daily fears may bring discomfort and a queasy feeling, yet do they bring constant anxiety? Do they bring an intense fear of something that poses little to no danger? Characteristics such as these are key attributes of a phobia. Phobias are a branch of an anxiety disorder, being an inexplicable and extreme fear that target specific triggers. The difference between a phobia and a fear are easily distinguishable. Phobias tend to come in three major forms, being specific phobias, social phobias and agoraphobia, all which go further than a basic sense of fear. Phobias bring constant fear and worry to the phobic person. Senior Austin Taylor has pittakionophobia, a fear of stickers. Taylor has had this fear for as long as she can remember, avoiding crafts at school and refusing to
take stickers from the doctor's office after a check-up. Phobias can be extremely embarrassing and traumatizing for the phobic, as other people find their fear to be irrational and silly. “I always get so embarrassed at how I react, especially in front of my peers,” Taylor said. “I’ve learned to just laugh along at what people comment because it’s easier to just make fun of myself than to explain myself.” Taylor takes a fight or response when encountering stickers, as when they get near her she will get very uneasy and nervous, feeling anxiety boil in her stomach. Once she comes into contact with a sticker, she will yelp until someone assists her in removing it from her skin. As a child, she would cry, yet throughout the years she has gained a tolerance and handles the situation more calmly. “To calm myself down, I just have to think about other things,” Taylor said. “I get a pit in my stomach and nausea, so I try to distract myself.” Some peers are in disbelief when finding
out about Taylor’s phobia, causing them to try to get a reaction out of her to see the truth for themselves. Witnessing a phobic encounter a person’s phobia can be alarming and confusing, yet keeping an open perspective and becoming willing to help is a large factor in assisting phobics. It may be hard for others that are not diagnosed with phobias to understand; it can be especially draining to phobics to explain their phobia countless times. “I try to be understanding because [my phobia] sounds so ridiculous and I know some may not believe it, but it’s hard when people intentionally try to see what would happen [when I encounter my phobia],” Taylor said. Phobias can be a complex thing for non-phobics to understand, yet the more information that is researched and understood by non-phobics, the easier it will be on people that have phobias. [Story by Emily Peacher]
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hances are, you’ve heard of at least one of these famous celebrities: James Charles, Kevin Hart, Demi Lovato, Drake Bell and Justin Bieber. What do they all have in common? Each one of these celebrities have felt the impacts of social media at some point in their career. From Twitter scandals to being pulled from hosting the Oscars, the effects of social media can be much more severe than one may think. While social media allows popular influencers to express opinions and connect with fans on a whole other level, platforms like Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat can allow incidents to arise. It only takes one slip up, one offensive tweet, accidental snap, unnecessary post, to end one’s career. James Charles, a popular internet celebrity and makeup artist, has achieved a tremendous amount of
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success through his YouTube channel. From his success, he was even able to become the first male ambassador for Covergirl. As Charles claimed his fame online, he was deeply involved in his social media platforms. Charles has become the center of many Twitter “scandals.” Most infamously, the offensive tweet he sent out about getting Ebola before heading off to Africa. Charles received an immense amount of backlash right away, resulting in him to tweet out numerous apologies. Kevin Hart was recently selected to host the Oscars. However, Hart stepped down from hosting after he was confronted about his past homophobic tweets. He snapped back about how the tweets were from a long time ago and that he is a different person, however the backlash got so bad he eventually opted out of hosting the Oscars. “Besides the obvious answer of just not being racist, sexist, homophobic or cruel, they need to learn to keep things to themselves,” said sophomore Carly Burns. “Celebrities that have been cancelled for tweets said things that really had no need to be published in such a way.” It’s a common occurrence for celebrities to experience the backlash for things they have posted on social media, but, incidents like these do not only occur among the famous. Students are being affected as well. A common case of social media negatively impacting students is when colleges pull offers due to something that has been discovered about an applicant. It can be as small as a picture
posted at a party or a snap that was supposed to disappear in 24 hours, everything posted on the Internet is forever. Students often dismiss this and act irresponsibly online, not thinking of the worst consequences. “Educators want their students to believe that they’re informed on how social media can take over, but I don’t think students understand just how much” said sophomore Elena O’Brien. The reality is that social media is on the rise and will continue to thrive throughout time. According to Pew Internet, 69 percent of adults in the U.S. use social media and that percentage will only continue to grow. As social media increases in popularity, it is crucial that people are educated on the impacts of the internet and that everything a person posts is permanent, despite what he/she believes. [Story by Bailey Elliott}
SOURCE: socialblade.com
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s social media becomes more prevalent leading to the rise of big celebrities and YouTube stars, there has been a collection of audience known as “stans.” A stan is a person who is dedicated to a particular celebrity or celebrities. Stans may do things such as start a fan page, attend celebrity events and hype the celebrity up. Being a stan has gotten a lot more popular since the evolution of technology and the trend of YouTube stars and other social media famous icons. Stans are able to express their admiration for the certain person that inspires them. Sophomore Brooke Hartman, who has been following YouTubers such as Emma Chamberlain and the Dolan Twins expresses how they inspire her. “These YouTubers inspire me because they are extremely funny and go out and do adrenaline rushing things
SOURCE: internetlivestats.com
just for the views,” Hartman said. “They are truly living their best life and that’s something that inspires me greatly.” Through this stan culture new terms have been developed that represent different things to say such as “spill the tea,” “yes queen,” “sus” and so many more. For older generations, these terms may be confusing, yet new slang has continued to be invented as the rise of YouTube and major celebrities continues to grow. Sophomore Sydney Lemmerman, who has also been keeping up with famous YouTubers and the latest news in Hollywood explains how these terms have affected her. “This new slang is super fun and I love using it, but it can get confusing when you talk about it around people who don’t really watch much YouTube and such,” Lemmerman said. Even though it seems like being overly obsessed with a celebrity could
potentially be a bad thing, it can also be a way to relieve stress. Some people who are extremely stressed may use being a stan to relieve some of their stress and relax a little. Relieving stress involves doing something one loves or are really committed too, and if being a stan and keeping up with a celebrities life is something that someone loves to do, it can end up being a stress reliever. YouTube and celebrities are only getting bigger. More and more people are looking to these kinds of people to draw inspiration from them and learn. As the world of YouTube and rising celebrities continues to increase, so will the amount of “stans” and slang. [Story by Lindsay Brisson]
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Waiting for Nothing “I
’ve been here before.” The thought runs through my head as students rush through the hallways to get to their next class. Some of them intently fixate on their destination. Some are engrossed in conversation with their friends, but all I can think about is how I’ve walked through these halls before and how I’ve seen all of these people pass me by in the exact same manner before. There is nowhere I can go to escape the monotony of my life. The gentle breeze I feel while walking home is nice, but it’s not new. I’ve walked this path over a hundred times walking to and from school. I know about every minute detail of the sidewalk: the twigs that lie on the floor in front of the big weeping willow tree that desperately needs to be pruned. I notice the panel from five months ago where I watched a bright orange turtle cross the sidewalk. I am grateful that I get to witness such beauty everyday, but I can’t help feeling the monotony of it all creeping on me. I think of all the other sidewalks in the world. Would I still feel like this if I were walking down a path in Ecuador or Denmark? Am I yearning for the feeling of novelty? Or am I waiting for something completely different than a sidewalk? There is no quick remedy for monotony. The suburbs is a breeding ground for boredom but moving across the world to some exotic country still won’t solve my problem. Nothing under the sun is new. Everything that exists is a variation of something else that already exists. The excitement I would feel immersing myself in the culture of Ecuador or Denmark would die as soon as I realize that life is unchanging. Yes, I might learn Danish or Spanish, but it would be another language nonetheless. A language no different than English. I might walk down a paved or dirt road, but I’d still be walking down a road. A road just like the one I walk down every single day. I can switch schools, professions, or friends but I’ll find myself right back where I started: bored. It does not stop there, this existential dread follows me to
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school. School leaves nothing to uncertainty. I know what my life will look like a year from now: I am going to be sitting in a seat inside of Freedom High School, and I’m going to go through the motions of a high school student. Monotony makes it hard to participate in academic discourse. What’s the point of saying anything if someone else is going to say it? If I have nothing new to say, then there is no point in talking. Repetitiveness is mind-numbing in all aspects, including speech, and I do not want to propagate it. I’m afraid monotony has caused me to feel apathetic. The repetitiveness of school and of life in general kills passion. If you do something enough times, you will get bored of it regardless of how passionate you may have felt about it initially. It’s hard to look forward to anything if you can always predict what will happen before it happens. I feel conflicted because I shouldn’t be bored. It’s not that I don’t have anything to do. I go to school, I participate in clubs, I go to social events, yet nothing elicits feelings of wonder and delightful anticipation. Strangely, I do not feel discouraged. I feel excited and hopeful for what is to come despite this existential dread I carry around with me. Part of me hopes that I am wrong. Maybe life is not monotonous. [Editorial by Kawther Said]
Taking a Beneficial Break I
can’t even begin to count the amount of times I’ve heard someone say, “I wish I had another elective.” I know I’ve said it multiple times myself. I’ve even complained about being forced to choose between marketing AND journalism AND a language. My friends and I have all experienced situations over the years where our course selections were based off of two main criteria: what we valued most or what we thought colleges would value most. The issue that arose with choosing classes was that sometimes, I ended up choosing classes based solely off of what I thought I needed to get to college, and I missed out on taking classes I really wanted to. But here’s the secret, I’ve found some extra time that allows you to take part in activities and learn subjects that you would’ve had to give up—and it’s during your summer vacation. Sure, we all deserve a break during the summer. It’s called summer BREAK for a reason. We spend our entire school year stressing
over classes, staying up late trying to do homework, and trying to keep our grades up while managing our extracurriculars. It’s only fair that we take a good amount of the summer to catch up on sleep, hang out with our friends, travel and fix our mental health. In all that free time that we have where we sit around and watch Netflix, we could actually be doing something productive. Ever thought about learning a new language or taking an online class to learn more about a topic that you could do over the school year? Summer is the perfect time to do that. If taking an online class sounds too nerdy or boring, there’s always different YouTube videos and apps that one can use. For example, this year I had to stop taking Spanish in order to take marketing and be part of DECA and the Newsmagazine. But, through apps like Duolingo, Rosetta Stone and Fluenz, I was able to continue expanding my Spanish knowledge and conversation skills without having to take the class. If you don’t want to use an
app or an online class, go get real world experience! Everyone talks about how they want to travel during the summer. What if you used your summer to immerse yourself in a new culture? If you want to learn Spanish and more about Hispanic culture, travel to a Central or South American country. Get the experience of going to a new location with a different culture from ours, and perfect your language. Even if you don’t want to learn a language, summer and the free time that comes with break provides so many opportunities. If you’ve always wanted to work-out more and never have time because of your overwhelming amount of school work during the school year, make yourself a summer schedule. Go to the gym. Learn how to cook healthy food so you don’t live off ramen when you go to college. No matter what you do, use your summer wisely, because otherwise, you’re just wasting valuable time. [Editorial by Ava Proehl]
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I
’m eight years old and it’s almost time to go to school. My mom gives me a tall glass of microwaved milk that she tells me to gulp down because it will ‘help me grow into a big, strong girl.’ I’m 11 years old in health class and another food documentary is stressing the necessity of milk in the human diet. I’m 15 years old and my lactose-intolerant friend has been feeling nauseous all day after eating several slices of pizza. The routine set of information about how ‘milk makes our bones strong’ and how ‘it’s a necessary part of our diet’ suppressed any questions I had regarding the validity of these statements and its impact on my personal health and the environment. And, I was more than happy to believe this myth with my extra cheesy pizzas and my Ben & Jerry’s dairy ice cream. But if the calf, a child of a cow, weans off of its mother’s milk 8-10 weeks after the calf is born then there is no rational argument for why grown human adults still drink milk. Especially when the milk is derived from a completely different species. Many cow-milk enthusiasts claim that milk is essential to a balanced diet because it provides us with necessary nutrients for our growth, such as calcium and vitamin D. However, the fact that milk has an abundance of certain nutrients has been abused when people justify the overconsumption of dairy. According to Harvard Medical School, the World Health Organization and many health professionals believe
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that people only need roughly 500 to 700 milligrams of calcium even though most health sites recommend twice that amount. This muddled answer on how much calcium is truly the right amount can lead to having an unhealthy diet and mislead the public. In areas where this is a long history of people who have been dependent on dairy as a major component of their diet, lactose intolerance is relatively low. For example, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), an approximate 5 percent of people of European descent are lactose intolerant. Yet, the majority of the world, roughly 65 percent, is. Evidently, our bodies are trying to tell us that we aren’t supposed to be consuming the secretions of an entirely different species. Who would’ve thought? Not only can milk be detrimental to human health, but the process of producing milk for millions of humans has terrible impacts on the environment and, obviously, the cows. According to the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, 9.4 million dairy cows and 31.7 million beef cows live in the United States alone. Since one single cow produces between 70 and 120 kg of methane gas per year, the numbers add up and leave a tremendous effect on the global climate. In order for cows to produce milk, they need to be pregnant which is oftentimes done through artificial insemination. This process of manually transporting sperm into the cow’s reproductive tract is highly unethical because the cow has
no choice but to become pregnant-commonly seen in factory farming. And, when the calf is born, it’s deprived of its mother’s milk because the milk becomes processed and transported so that a 30-year-old man living in Connecticut can add an extra pump of queso to his nachos. This comes from the lack of mindfulness about what we are consuming and how it impacts us. Although it is the consumer’s responsibility to be aware of the products they choose to purchase, it becomes difficult to differentiate between truths with falsities when all we have been exposed to are propaganda that encourage the consumption of dairy. Due to the growing awareness of the dairy industry’s damaging effects on the environment and people, there has been an increasing demand for dairy-free alternatives. Dairy- free alternatives usually comprise of nuts, such as almonds, soy, or cashew. Because of this relatively new demand, many dairy farmers and members of the industry have been attempting to push the Food and Drug Administration to ban dairy-alternative milk companies from referring to themselves as ‘milk’; they believe that it will confuse the customer. In reality, these dairy companies want to ward off their more environmentally-conscious competition that has grown an increasing amount of popularity within recent years. This demonstrates how the dairy industry has never cared for how strong our bones will be but rather how much money is in their pockets. [Editorial by Aayusha Khanal]
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Failure Abroad Is Failing Humanity
n 1914, the first of 1,500,000 Armenians were methodically and systematically massacred in Turkey. It would mark the first “race murder” of the 20th century – at the time, the term genocide had not yet been coined. Twenty-seven years later in 1941, Nazi Germany would begin putting into effect their “Final Solution,” sending primarily Jews into concentration camps where they would be executed through various gruesome methods including gas chambers. An estimated 6,000,000 were killed. A mere 25 years ago in Rwanda, members of the Hutu majority began slaughtering members of the Tutsi minority, often with machetes as their weapon of choice. An estimated 800,000 were killed. What to all of these tragic events have in common? In each instance, the U.S. was at once overly isolationist in its policies and willfully ignorant regarding the atrocities themselves. During the Armenian genocide, President Wilson did not interfere due to resistance from the American public against joining World War I. In fact, the U.S. would not join the war until nearly three years after the beginning of the Armenian genocide, and for completely separate reasons. Americans largely did not care about foreigners suffering abroad, only when American lives were directly involved did their attention move outside U.S. borders. In recent decades, it has come to light that the U.S. purposely suppressed information of Nazi concentration camps from the public for the fear that it would sway public opinion. The U.S. Office of War Information even quite infamously prevented the story of two Auschwitz escapees from being disseminated to the
public as they feared it would only distract from the war effort and demoralize European citizens. Any information on the matter of concentration camps was relegated to minor stories hidden within newspapers as without government corroboration, every claim was essentially unsubstantiated. Anti-semitism likely played a role in this, but so did the long lasting belief that America should only live up to its moral principles when it benefits the nation economically rather than the world as a whole. Throughout the Rwandan Genocide, the Clinton Administration was hampered politically due to the aftermath of the First Battle of Mogadishu, often referred to as the Black Hawk Down incident, where 18 American soldiers were killed in Somalia. Americans did not want American soldiers used in peace missions – especially in Africa. As a result, President Clinton chose not to intervene in Rwanda, even as CIA intelligence briefings informed him that the genocide was escalating. His administration even, in an act of Orwellian diction, refused to publicly use the word genocide, even though it was revealed that it was utilized in private discussions. These events highlight America’s reputation for selective moral action. Our country enjoys concealing its intentions under a banner of spreading “freedom” and “democracy.” In recent history, for example, the U.S. has been quick to intervene in the Middle East in nations such as Kuwait and Iraq, but less so in nations in other areas of the world. We refuse to acknowledge that the desire for Middle Eastern natural resources factored into our decision to intervene.
However, a more important trend emerges when analyzing these foreign policy failures. The public has immense influence on politicians when it comes to deciding whether the country will make the ethical decision on intervention. Little is more divisive than wars regarding American society. Whether it is Vietnam or Iraq, wars inevitably transform our culture and political lines, meaning that they also influence votes. The reality is, if we are to expect our politicians to make informed decisions on foreign policy, we need to be informed ourselves. The reason why politicians often make more questionable choices on international problems is that the informed citizenry that our democracy is based on is less present when debating these foreign subjects. Americans do not see the child starving in Yemen, but they do see their family member with overpriced healthcare. They see the school shootings in nearby counties. They feel the effects of the opioid epidemic, not the effects of Uighur oppression in China. For this reason, unfortunately, our politicians are held to a lower standard on these issues. The onus rests on us as citizens to educate ourselves on these complicated international issues to provide them the political leeway to intervene when necessary, or to pressure them if they choose not to. We cannot afford to narrow the scope of our empathy to the people in our immediate surroundings. As citizens of the most powerful nation on Earth, we have the responsibility not only to be aware of events in the outside world, but also to care about them so that our politicians will feel compelled to do so as well. [Editorial by Kaise Dualeh]
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